<p>My family makes well over 250k/year. Unfortunetaly, with the economy, my parents can no longer help pay for my education. I agree that my family SHOULD be able to pay, esp considered our income, but we have had thousands of dollars worth of medical expenses, lots of debt, a large family, etc. What are my options? Can anyone suggest specific scholorships that I would qualify for that would provide at least 1/2-full ride? UT and A&M are great options, but I'm looking for something that would cost less. I'm obviously aiming for a Tier 1 school, but am willing to go lower if I can emerge from undergrad debt free.</p>
<p>Intended Major: Double Bio/Latin (PREMED)
Native American(i get 3k/year automatically from my tribe)
One of the top HS in Texas
1510/2200 SAT
97ish GPA (we don't use the normal system)
ECS: Orchestra, Cheer, Track/XC, Latin Club, Math Club, Chem Club, Technology Exploration Club, Girl Scouts, etc
Honors: National Merit Commended, AP Scholar With Distinction, National Honor Society, National Latin Honor Society
APs: Latin Vergil-5
English-4
Stats-4
Chem-4
Phys-3
World Hist-3
Calc BC-3/2 (yes, i realize how bad of a score that is!)
I will be taking 6-7 more APs this year and actually plan on studying this time around!</p>
<p>Native Americans at the public U where I work get free tuition … no strings attached regarding gpa, number of credits, satisfactory academic progress, etc. Look for a school that offers Indian Tuition Grants.</p>
<p>You are smart to look for merit schools. You have excellent stats. If you are willing to be flexible about the school you attend, you should be able to find a school your family can afford.</p>
<p>I admire your attitude. Yes, your family “should” be able to afford to pay for school, but the reality is that they are unable to do so. Finding a school that will work financially for your family is the way to go. There are wonderful resources on CC for you. Make sure you read the posts about merit scholarships. Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>Are your parents saying that they can’t pay anything at all? Not one cent? Or are they saying that they can’t pay for all of your costs?</p>
<p>The reason I’m asking is that The University of Alabama will give you completely free tuition (Presidential Scholarship), but you will still have to come up with some money to pay for some things…like dorm, books, and food…about $8-10k per year (which it sounds like you could pay some of that with your 3k per year from your tribe. That would only leave about $5-7 thousand that your family could pay or you could take out loans. This scholly is worth about $80,000 since it includes any tuition increases.</p>
<p>Also…Depending on your major, you could also get departmental schollies on top of the Presidential scholly. That might help with the shortfall.</p>
<p>Out-of State Scholarships for 2010-2011</p>
<p>Presidential Scholar
An out-of-state first-time freshman student who meets the December 1st scholarship priority deadline, has a 32-36 ACT or 1400-1600 SAT score and at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA will be selected as a Presidential Scholar and will receive the value of out-of-state tuition for four years.</p>
<p>You should at least apply to UA as a financial safety (apply to both school and scholarships).</p>
<p>Also…since you’re smart, UA will likely hire you to tutor other students. This is my son’s 3rd year working for the university as a paid tutor.</p>
<p>Similar to what mom2college kids posted - you would qualify for the Golden Oaks scholarship at LSU. Full tuition with opportunity for work study. You would still have to cover room and board, books, etc. </p>
<p>Well to be honest we aren’t sure how much they will be able to contribute. The amount depends on a variety of factors and we won’t know until the last minute, which puts me in a really unfortunate situation. We for sure won’t be able to afford 50k/year, at the MOST probably 25-30ishk/year, and possibly 0k/year.</p>
<p>I will definetaly look into UA & LSU! Are there any other schools where I could get 2/3-fullish rides?</p>
<p>Also, what do you think about my admission and the possiblity of recieveing merit based scholorships at RICE, Northwestern, DUKE, & WashU in St. Louis?</p>
<p>According to LSU’s website…the Golden Oaks is not automatic for non-residents. Not all that “have the stats” get that scholly.</p>
<p>However, if you apply on time at UA, you will definitely get the Presidential…no question about it; it’s not a competitive scholly. And, rank won’t matter…it’s just based on GPA and SAT/ACT scores…and applying for school and schollies by Dec 1. So, go for it!</p>
<p>WashU will likely ask for a FAFSA, so you won’t get anything because your family earns too much. The others are iffy too if they ask for a FAFSA. You need to try schools that won’t ask for a FAFSA. The other problem is that many privates will offer top students $10k a year discounts, but that’s not much when the cost to attend is $57k per year. That’s a big problem with privates…a discount on a large amount isn’t much of a discount when you’re not sure how much your family can pay.</p>
<p>The scholarships the OP is asking about at WUSTL and the others are merit based, they don’t have a need factor. </p>
<p>I don’t like to give chances on admission, no less scholarships, which are even more difficult to predict. But I will say that a NA with your grades and test scores is very rare, so I would encourage you to apply to those and other schools that have merit aid for URMs or specifically for NAs.</p>
<p>Other schools to look at for merit aid: UMichigan, UWisconsin, UNC-CH, & BU.</p>
<p>wow, =[
i don’t understand though how families who don’t qualify for financial aid are struggling to send their kids to college. yet lower class people don’t have to give a second thought to tuition at harvard. what a paradox. seriously, if your family makes 250,000 + yearly, what the hell are they doing with that money that could be better than financing their child’s education?? how many people could there be to support in one’s immediate family?</p>
<p>I agree…competitive schollies are too hard to predict because the schollies are very limited in number, yet they have hundreds of qualified kids applying for them. Giving chances on competitive schollies is like giving chances on admissions at Harvard…even the best of the best can get turned down.</p>
<p>When I looked at WUSL’s website…it looks like only 4 full tuition schollies get awarded to science/math majors. There are a few other full tuition schollies, but they are for business majors, engineering majors, and social science majors. The chances of being awarded one of the four science/math major full tuition schollies would be very small…even for a URM.</p>
<p>It’s not a good idea to choose any school to be your financial safety if you must win a competitive scholly to be affordable. It can be a reach/match/safety school, but a financial safety should be one that YOU KNOW will be affordable because either you can afford to pay for all of it, or you know you’ll qualify for an automatic scholly…</p>
<p>Well, from what my situation is, people have extensive medical bills and on going bills. Like $100,000 in debt. And even though my parents would normally be able to pay for most of my tuition, they are unable to. They did not ask for this medical debt and FAFSA does not consider any kind of medical expenses. It’s not as cut and dry as others would like to think it is. My parents used there money to pay for my 6-year-old Autistic sister’s therapy, and frankly, I think that’s a pretty damn good use of their money.</p>
<p>Plus, people who qualify for enough aid to pay for a majority of their college tuition are also the only people who qualify for work-study and grants, which is unfair in my mind. I would be more than happy to work for my education, but it is hard to find jobs that will work as well as a work-study program does with a college student’s schedule.</p>
<p>The facts: FAFSA and aid needs a serious overhaul. It’s almost impossible for middle-America to go to college and come out debt free. And THAT is ridiculous.</p>
Most schools have tons of on-campus jobs that are student-friendly; anyone can get one, you don’t have to be awarded work-study money to get it. No on-campus job, work-study or not, will be enough to pay for the entire cost of your education, though.</p>
<p>Quote:
I would be more than happy to work for my education, but it is hard to find jobs that will work as well as a work-study program does with a college student’s schedule. </p>
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<p>Actually, many colleges make it quite clear that nearly all student campus jobs are reserved for work-study programs (and many colleges struggle to find enough campus jobs to fill all of their work-study students.)</p>
<p>In my son’s case, since he was hired as a campus tutor (the job requires very high stats in math, sciences, and foreign languages), those jobs aren’t part of the work-study program. So, to get a campus job without being a work-study student, one usually has to have a special talent - such as tutoring or public-speaking (for campus tours).</p>
<p>That said…there are usually many businesses around a campus that will hire students. Certainly any business near a campus KNOWS that his employees are students who have schedules that must be accomodated. Kids in high school get jobs that accomodate their schedules…and college kids can do the same.</p>
<p>But…seriously…most kids can’t earn enough these days to really make a dent in college costs (unless going to a CC). Many kids can usually only earn enough to pay for gas for their cars, personal expenses, and occasional entertainment activities. Once a kid pays for his day-to-day expenses and a moderate level of “college life,” there just isn’t going to be thousands and thousands left over for college costs.</p>
<p>OP,
Don’t overlook the Danforth at WUSTL. They say it’s by nomination only, but 3 years ago when my D1 applied, a teacher just had to contact them to get the nomination form. However, the deadline is Oct. 15, so it may be too late unless you have a really nice teacher who is willing to nominate you on short notice. It’s good to see that they have this on their website now, before it was by word of mouth only. </p>
<p>I was thinking that they had a scholarship for NAs too, but no, just one for AAs and another for Hispanics.</p>
<p>Speaking of the Danforth scholorship, my counselor already nominated me for it without me even asking a few weeks back.</p>
<p>I know alot of people get upset and defensive when someone from an upper class family can’t pay but like people have said there is ALOT more to your economic situation than income. My family has spent their money taking care of a dying grandparent, paying for my little sister’s speech/OT, and my mom’s numerous foot surgeries and seizure medication. We also have 4 children in our family and my father is not on a set income (he gets a % of profits) so we never know how much money he will make each month.</p>
<p>Basically, everyone’s situation is different, so its best just to accept it for what it is and look for what I CAN afford so that I can get an education.</p>
I am neither upset or defensive about your distress that your parents are unable/unwilling to contribute to your education. From the child’s point of view it doesn’t really matter what the reasons are when they find out no one is going to hand them $200,000 for their college education - they are disappointed. I would like to point out, however, that you seem unaware that families making only a fraction of what your family makes ALSO have relatives to care for, other children requiring extra help, medical expenses not covered by insurance, and unpredictable incomes (due to unemployment, for example) and yet manage, with planning and sacrifice, to contribute significantly to their children’s college education. Ours does.</p>
<p>The title of your thread points out how little you know about what really would be “The Worst Situation Possible.” </p>
<p>I congratulate you for looking in to the costs and payment options NOW, instead of waiting until April, as many others in your position will. It shows the beginnings of a maturity that will allow you to see that your situation is not so bad after all. Best of luck.</p>